Ridley Scott and Leonardo DiCaprio heading to a Brave New World

Ridley Scott and Leonardo DiCaprio are developing a feature film version of Aldous Huxley’s book Brave New World, one of the most highly regarded dystopian works of literature, according to THR.

The project is been set up at Universal, where Scott will direct, and DiCaprio will star, from a script by Apocalypto writer Farhad Safinia.

Scott and DiCaprio will also produce the project via their respective Scott Free and Appian Way shingles, along with Michael Costigan, George DiCaprio and Peter Cramer.

According to the Risky Business Blog, Scott – who’s currently finishing up the period action film Robin Hood in England – has not yet committed to directing the project, and talks are still in the early stages. DiCaprio meanwhile, is shooting the Christopher Nolan sci-fi adventure Inception and does not have a film project lined up after that.

Brave New World has been the subject of many television adaptations, including a Leonard Nimoy/Peter Gallagher telefilm on NBC in 1998, but has yet to be adapted for the big screen.

Aldous Huxley’s classic science fiction work is set in the 26th century, with earth having achieved harmony through tightly controlling birth, which takes place mainly in laboratories, and outlawing family. Each character in the book is given a separate personality including the nonconformist Bernard, and John, the “Savage.” DiCaprio may play Bernard, who is persecuted when the leaders of society find his behavior antisocial.